Diego Ruggeri

Diego Ruggeri came to painting as a self-taught artist, after a long career in technical drawing. Yet art was never a sudden landing place for him: it has been a constant presence, a passion cultivated since boyhood and long kept as an underground thread, ready to resurface. With the advent of new technologies and the gradual abandonment of traditional technical drawing, Ruggeri chose to devote himself fully to painting, finding in Pop Art a language close to his own sensibility. Fundamental to his journey was his encounter with Teodorico Battaglini, the mentor from whom he learnt the first tools, before continuing independently through the study of techniques, materials and the history of art. His research is founded on the creation of images capable of becoming vehicles of emotion. Each work arises from a lengthy process of observation, reflection and planning: first the study of the subject, then the evaluation of composition, colours, visual balance and the elements needed to build the painting. In this rigorous method the legacy of technical drawing is evident, which does not, however, limit expression, but becomes the starting point from which the emotional core of the work emerges. Inspiration may arise from an everyday detail, from a face glimpsed in the street and then reworked according to a personal vision. The face is often at the centre of his painting, yet it is never rendered in traditional form: the most recognisable hallmark of his work is indeed the puzzle. Through tiles, fragments and dislocations, Ruggeri gives shape to identities never entirely complete, images permeated by the idea of change, loss and transformation. The puzzle thus becomes a metaphor for existence itself: a whole made of parts seeking order, memory and the possibility of recomposing themselves without ever returning quite to what they were before. His artistic path, too, is marked by transformation. From his early oil landscapes, Ruggeri gradually moved to acrylic, refining his language. Where the early works favour a more materic painting, built through decisive, bold brushstrokes, his style today tends towards cleaner, softer and more controlled lines. Among the references that accompanied his formation, Andy Warhol stands out for the power of the iconic image; Edward Hopper for his capacity to evoke silence, suspension and solitude; and Jack Vettriano for his cinematic and narrative atmosphere. Alongside these is Caravaggio, important for his use of light and dark backgrounds. Ruggeri often looks to icons of the past, recognisable faces and figures charged with memory, which he transposes onto canvas to capture not only their image, but also their emotional and symbolic trace. For Diego Ruggeri, painting means giving form to what strikes him and passes through him, transforming gaze into narrative and image into emotional resonance. Each work is an open dialogue with himself and with the viewer: if someone pauses before a face broken into fragments, recognises an emotion, senses unease or a sense of closeness, then painting has accomplished its most authentic gesture. In that silent gap between the work and the gaze of the other, Ruggeri continues to search for the meaning of his artistic practice.